In this post I thought I would share with you a couple of cool little gadgets that I found on the web which can help you out with model railroading.

The first is this cool little widget which converts real life measurements and converts them into OO, HO, N, or Z scale. This little tool is from Coalville Models and its ideal if you are planning on scratch building anything from real life and want to get the scale correct.

The second is XTrackCAD. Basically it’s a design program which is specifically made to design model train layouts. AND IT’S COMPLETELY FREE.

Its main features allow you to:

Design layouts in any scale and gauge,

Use the predefined libraries for many popular brands of track and turnouts to help you get started easily,

Add your own favourite components,

Manipulate track much like you would with actual flex-track to modify, extend and join tracks and turnouts,

Test your design by running trains, including picking them up and moving them with the mouse.

At any point you can print the design in a scale of your choice. When printed in 1:1 scale the printout can be used as a template for laying the track to build your dream layout.

Learning XTrackCAD is made easy with the extensive on-line help and demonstrations.

I’ll be honest with you, XTrackCAD is an excellent bit of kit, but it does take a bit of practise. Admittedly that does depend on how good you are with computers; it took me a few days and some trial runs before I had the hang of using it, whereas my son just started picked it up straight away.